(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a yacht timer and a means for converting a conventional sweep second watch or clock, particularly a wristwatch, into a yacht timer for use in sailboat racing.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
One of the many wonderful lures of sailboat racing is that there is a race to suit the taste of nearly every sailor. There are races for male and female, young and old, summer and winter. Regardless of the many different types of hulls, and the fact that boats vary in size and style, there are primarily two major classifications of racing in which a group of sailboats race against each other as individuals, i.e., not as a team, namely one design or class-boat racing and handicap racing.
One design is in general, a race between boats of the same class, i.e., boats which are nearly identical, racing on even terms. In this boat-for-boat race, the boat with the fastest elapsed time, from the start of the race to the finish, or the first boat over the finish line, wins the race.
Although one design races commonly involve individuals racing against one another, another manner of racing one design boats is as a team. Thus, a race might, for example, involve two four boat teams. The winning team could be scored either as the first to win two races out of a possible three or the like, or some manner of team point scoring.
Handicap racing differs from class-boat racing in that it is a race handicapped by some type of time-allowance system to make all boats in the race as evenly matched as possible. With the resulting handicap rating, sloops, cutters, yawls, ketches, and schooners are able to compete evenly with each other regardless of size. The winning boat is the one with the best corrected time, or the best time for sailing the course, after handicap corrections have been made.
A relatively new addition to the offshore racing scene, and which is a species of handicap racing, is performance handicap racing fleet (P.H.R.F.). This system bases its ratings on the actual performance of a particular type of boat, not on a rating system based on projected speed potential of a particular design. With such a system, older design boats are made more competitive, and more fairly handicap racing entries.
Class-boat racing, of these two major classes of boat racing is believed by far the most popular manner of boat racing in the United States. However, races of both types take place offshore on almost every sound and bay and inland on numerous lakes, and rivers, on the North American continent.
In its barest essentials, a course for a yacht race, comprises a start, a place to go, and a finish. The start is a line to be crossed. The place to go is sometimes, as in some ocean races, nothing more than a statement about the finish in which case the only marks may be the marks of the starting and the finishing lines. In most cases, however, there are from one to half a dozen or more marks which yachts are required to round, thereby establishing a minimum distance which each yacht must sail. And finally, the finish, like the start, is a line to be crossed.
No part of a yacht race more consistently determines which yacht will have a chance to win it, and which will not, than the start. Getting a good start will generally assure a position at the front of the fleet at the weather mark, barring poor speed or bad judgement, or wind shifts. A good start is a necessary part of winning, and is half the race in relatively small, one-design boats. When the boats are very nearly equal and the skippers all known how to sail, there isn't much room for very much difference in how fast the boats get around the race course. The skipper who starts ahead has every chance at staying ahead.
It is, of course, basic that a racing skipper must known the starting signals that will be used for a particular race. One system customarily used to start a race is that at precisely ten minutes before the start a warning signal is given from the race committee boat. This signal is given audibly with a gun or whistle, and at the same time it is given visibly with the hoisting of a flag or shape. Exactly four and one-half minutes later, the warning shape which is usually white, is hauled down and 30 seconds later, another signal, the preparatory signal, is given audibly and visibly with a gun or whistle, and the hoisting of another flag or shape, usually colored blue. Four and one-half minutes later, the preparatory shape is hauled down; and thirty seconds after this, the start signal is given audibly and visibly with a gun or whistle, and the hoisting of the starting shape or flag, usually colored red. Although these various signals may be done both audibly and visibly, actually the visual signal gives the exact, and official, time of the start.
The object or goal in sail boat racing as in any race is, of course, to win and one important objective in reaching that goal is to reach the starting line just as the starting signal is made, and at the right place on the line, depending on the wind and course, with the boat sailing at top speed. This is an ideal situation, of course, that few racing shippers achieve consistently, at least until after considerable racing experience.
One of the most important things to remember about the start of a race is that the initial signal, i.e., the warning signal, is given a fairly long time, e.g. ten minutes, before the actual starting time of the race. Accordingly, a skipper must develop some skill and sense of timing in sailing to and from the starting line in preparation for the start of the race. When the starting signal is given, the race can almost be over for the skipper who is in the wrong place, i.e., he is sailing away from the starting line or is just too far distance from it to get a good start. To insure against being at the wrong place at the time of start, racing skippers, especially the very serious ones, or where the race involved is an important one, use a yachting timer, i.e., a specially constructed wrist or pocket watch having a special dial face, and which operates somewhat in the manner of a stop watch. There are also digital countdown timers available for bulkhead mounting, in the case of larger boats, if desired. These various yacht timers provide various countdowns, e.g., ten and fifteen minute displays, or counts repeatedly from 5'00" to 0'00".
Some racing skippers do not have yacht timers as above described and, in order to have at least some means of timing the start of the race, use a conventional stop watch. This, as will be appreciated does not provide the racing skipper with "time-to-go" and, as a result, often leads to confusion.